Hey, why not Jacques Demers? He won a CUP in 1993! I mean, if the whole mentality is "let's bring back someone who was successful 2 decades ago", go grab Demers. Or Terry Crisp. Or perhaps Mike Keenan needs a 2nd chance in Boston.

Brian Sutter? Maybe Gerry Cheevers? Did anyone watch the game v. Ottawa? They played terribly but the camera showed Sturm, Krejci, Boychuk, and Savard in the press booth - add another defenseman and that's a significant unit that could be on the ice. Give Julien his full roster and then judge him.

Hey, why not Jacques Demers? He won a CUP in 1993! I mean, if the whole mentality is "let's bring back someone who was successful 2 decades ago", go grab Demers. Or Terry Crisp. Or perhaps Mike Keenan needs a 2nd chance in Boston. Mike Milbury....you've GOT to be kidding me.Posted by Kennedy97

Mike Milbury would be a disaster! Scott Gordon would be a good hire for an assistant for now in the press box.

WHY IS EVERYTHING IN ALL CAPS AND FOLLOWED BY TWELVE EXCLAMATION POINTS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!?

Simmer down. Pro athletes have a different emotional make-up than fans. You can't press your foot on the necks of your team for an entire season and think it'll relate to better play. Motivational locker room speeches are for movies, not real life. Teams will tune out the shouting after a while.

Teams need a coach that can install a system, provide consistency, communicate to management to find the right players for said system and push buttons sparingly and strategically. CJ is perfectly fine for this team. The players need to step up their game. Lest we forget, they're the ones actually on the ice with the ability to do something about slow starts.

WHY IS EVERYTHING IN ALL CAPS AND FOLLOWED BY TWELVE EXCLAMATION POINTS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!? Simmer down. Pro athletes have a different emotional make-up than fans. You can't press your foot on the necks of your team for an entire season and think it'll relate to better play. Motivational locker room speeches are for movies, not real life. Teams will tune out the shouting after a while. Teams need a coach that can install a system, provide consistency, communicate to management to find the right players for said system and push buttons sparingly and strategically. CJ is perfectly fine for this team. The players need to step up their game. Lest we forget, they're the ones actually on the ice with the ability to do something about slow starts. ...and take it off caps lock. It doesn't help your argument.Posted by asmaha

Yeah,it seems some folks are quick to forget the shambles in which this team was in when CJ arrived.Now,all of a sudden,they're expected to win every night or he should be fired.Not sure if these people are fickle,simple or both.

Keep doing things the same way and expecting different results-that's just plain stupid. This is what this guy does - he was fired before he got here for the same exact reasons. Too defensive, unable to adapt, stubborn, offense killer, lack of emotion, conservative, players unprepared and unmotivated...etc. Injuries are a concern - BUT there hasn't been any focus on the forecheck, and taking the body in the offensive zone is all but gone completely -that has nothing to do with who's here and who's not. AND it's not just this year for all of those who think these posts are about panic. Philly and Carolina did the same thing in the playoffs that the Blues, Habs, and Sens just did. In all those examples one team was the aggressor the other was cautious. One played with desperation the other was passive. One team attacked, the other was worried about the neutral zone. If anyone hasn't noticed our top players have been getting drilled pretty good without response, what's that? a coincidence, or an unemotional team being led by someone who preaches control and caution to a fault ?Posted by JWensink

The issue w/ Claude is the fact that his 'system' will NEVER win a cup....he has a ton of young talent that is reeled back & IMO this hurts their development....the trap basically takes every ounce of skill set these kids have & makes them into robots! I hear it all the time on this blogs that Wheeler-Seguin-etc look 'confused' on the ice, the system is the reason; they are constantly thinking where they need to be given the forced X and O system of CJ; an athlete that is scared to death to make mistakes, will do exactly that, they play tight/nervous given they are not in the perfect positioning; hockey is losing all its imagination, skill, flow to the game....esepcially in this town under CJ!!

This system will keep games close, get them into the playoffs, and lose every year once they come up against teams that attack the heck out of them, do the Flyers ring a bell, they collapsed just too much & eventually they will break under that sustained pressure as you allow teams to constantly attack you, its just a matter of time!!

I am not a CJ fan for a number of reasons. IMO the Bruins lost their best NHL level coach when Ramsey went to Atlanta. It also appears that the other coaches are following CJ to a T. There is now one available coach, not mad Mike, in Scott Gordon who had a very successful run in Providence. At the same time CJ has a contract and the Bruins have Neely and other hockey people who could influence Claude's future but have not made any comments so far. We do need to see the team when Savard and Kreji are back full time because their presence should really change the dynamics with lines like Lucic/Kreji/Horton; Seguin/Savard/Wheeler; Recchi/Bergeron/Caron;Marchand/Campbell/Thornton. This implies that Paille and Ryder[ cap space] are gone in trade or to Providence[ until the playoffs] it doesn't change the defense yet.

The issue w/ Claude is the fact that his 'system' will NEVER win a cup....he has a ton of young talent that is reeled back & IMO this hurts their development....the trap basically takes every ounce of skill set these kids have & makes them into robots! I hear it all the time on this blogs that Wheeler-Seguin-etc look 'confused' on the ice, the system is the reason; they are constantly thinking where they need to be given the forced X and O system of CJ; an athlete that is scared to death to make mistakes, will do exactly that, they play tight/nervous given they are not in the perfect positioning; hockey is losing all its imagination, skill, flow to the game....esepcially in this town under CJ!! This system will keep games close, get them into the playoffs, and lose every year once they come up against teams that attack the heck out of them, do the Flyers ring a bell, they collapsed just too much & eventually they will break under that sustained pressure as you allow teams to constantly attack you, its just a matter of time!!Posted by yep123

Yeah, my God, that David Krejci guy - what a robot! No flair, no creativity, he's so obviously stifled, it's horrible, I tell you. Same with Savard. Ugh.

Look, plainly you don't know what on earth you're ranting about. Being responsible in your own end doesn't stifle offensive creativity. The only time the Bruins pull into a classic "trap" shell is late in games when they're protecting a 2+ goal lead, and if you take a look around the NHL, you'll realize that every team does that. Except maybe the Caps, who don't play defense.

Claude Julien's "system" team was second in the league in scoring (by the narrowest of margins) two years ago when - surprise! - he had healthy players on the ice. This year - surprise! - with guys like Lucic and Krejci healthy, the Bruins were well on their way to scoring 3+ goals per game. It ain't the coach, it ain't the system - it's the personnel.

As for Seguin looking "confused," for God's sake, he's an 18-year-old kid! If he didn't look confused, I'd wonder if he was brain dead. He has got a lot to learn, and that would be true for him on any team, unless you have a coach that would just allow him to run around and do whatever he wants.

Settle down there as the kid that has a shirtless guy as his photo, kind of strange....anyway, Claude has been coaching in this league for how many years, and hwo many rings does he have? If you really want to get into it, all teams in the league do not trap, they have flow through their D, Boston's D constantly dump whenever appraoched vs. regrouping puck possession hockey, why do you think their D constantly move the puck back in their zone, opposing coaches literally have a player stay down low & intercept passes all night behind the B's cage and/or the back wall, they play like robots, they have no idea how to make a play on their own....I was using Wheeler & Seguin as examples, Wheeler is on his third season, no comment on him? I'd love to watch a game with you to educate you about the finer points of the game which you clearly do not understand.

Krecji is the best player on their roster, I agree he is creative but would be putting up 90 point seasons in Pitt, Vancouver etc; by the way teams which have have much more success than Boston under CJ.

Settle down there as the kid that has a shirtless guy as his photo, kind of strange....anyway, Claude has been coaching in this league for how many years, and hwo many rings does he have? If you really want to get into it, all teams in the league do not trap, they have flow through their D, Boston's D constantly dump whenever appraoched vs. regrouping puck possession hockey, why do you think their D constantly move the puck back in their zone, opposing coaches literally have a player stay down low & intercept passes all night behind the B's cage and/or the back wall, they play like robots, they have no idea how to make a play on their own....I was using Wheeler & Seguin as examples, Wheeler is on his third season, no comment on him? I'd love to watch a game with you to educate you about the finer points of the game which you clearly do not understand. Krecji is the best player on their roster, I agree he is creative but would be putting up 90 point seasons in Pitt, Vancouver etc; by the way teams which have have much more success than Boston under CJ. Posted by yep123

Considering 1. I'm not a "kid" and 2. I'm not a "his," it's not strange at all.

You'd like to educate me about the game? ROFLMAO.

No comment on Wheeler because he doesn't "look confused."

Chara is the best player on the roster. And please, it's Krejci, not "Krecji."

And as for Julien not having any "rings," he's coached in the NHL for a little more than six years. I'm sure you believe Joel Quenneville is a good coach, won the Cup last spring, right? Quenneville won his first ring in his 13th year as a head coach.

I'll go as far as saying that Claude doesn't take responsibility for his team's level of aggression - he just doesn't. The only time I ever hear him talk about players needing to be more aggressive, more physical, more corsair in pushing the attack is when he's after one specific guy. Typically it's Lucic who needs to remember what got him here. Beyond that? Crickets. Instead we hear about spacing and gaps and transition game. I'm not sure you fire the guy for it, but I'd love to know how they're held accountable for that part of the game.

My read on this is simply that he expects the players to drive the level of aggression. They're expected to play as aggressively as possible without sacrificing team defense. No...scratch that...they are allowed to play aggressively as long as they don't let their aggression come back to bit the team's kiester. So when duinne mentions Krejci or Savard, she's referring to two players who can be very creative, and use their creativity to push the offensive pace - but they're doing it with talent and based on a team philosophy. Lucic is another one. From time to time, he will bull the puck into danger areas off the boards or from behind the net and make something happen. Think his turnaround slapper in the playoffs or the Chara goal vs. the Habs. That's aggressive, he11 or high water hockey. Is he coached to do that? Is he encouraged to do it more often? Do they practice set plays to give Lucic an edge to get a bull rush started? I don't know. But I doubt it.

That being the case, I split the my frustration fairly equally between the players and the coach. I guess what we see is that only a few players in this lineup are creative enough, aggressive enough, to play that way and remain responsible. Savard, Krejci, Bergeron, Lucic, Horton, and the guy wearing Ryder's jersey this season. That's about it. Oh, and whoever said Bergeron isn't creative needs to define their terms. He's one of the few forwards on the team who makes the snap decision to just go with the puck and drive the net from wherever he is on the ice, and he has the hands to make it work - case in point the play that led to Wheeler's punch no-goal.

Bookboy, you're certainly welcome to your opinion, but I'd caution you about one thing: what a coach says for public consumption and what he says to his team are often - no, usually - two vastly different things.

Here's a new idea. Fire Julian and rehire Dave Lewis - he of the dump it out of the zone strategy and then go and chase it and let the other team play Catch Me if You Can. Or maybe even go all the way back and hire Steve Kaspar whose motivational theme is to embarrass your star players by sitting them on the bench in an away rink just to make sure the message gets through.

Bookboy, you're certainly welcome to your opinion, but I'd caution you about one thing: what a coach says for public consumption and what he says to his team are often - no, usually - two vastly different things. Posted by duinne

I was just about to post the same comment after reading BB's post . Do any of us know what is taught to the players during practice or what is said inside the locker rooms ? Just because a person hasn't heard these words through the media makes it something that is not being conveyed to the players ?

I have been reading that different Bruins players have been quoted as saying that their game is getting to the loose pucks first . Is this not a form of aggression and who do you think tells them to do this ?

Sorry Duinne, actually stupid in my thinking only men are on this thread....seriously, my apologies.

As far as coaching is concerned, Julien has been with three teams & hasnt had any success beyond the second round; wouldnt you question his abilities to coach an NHL team? Why has those teams tasted more success once he left, Devils & Montreal both have gone further once he was gone, there has to be a reason for this, management saw rosters that were not being utilized for their talents, his system limits skill & takes away from the flow of the game IMO; in laughing at watchng a game with me so I can may point out some areas in which proves my points, sounds as though you have played at some high levels, so I ask you if there is no flow to the game, players are limited in what they can accomplish, woudlnt that frustrate the heck out of you as a player on that team? This is what I am talking about this team will never win a cup, trap down keep games close, have moderate success on talent but never win it all!

In Response to Re: CLAUDE MUST GO!!! : I was just about to post the same comment after reading BB's post . Do any of us know what is taught to the players during practice or what is said inside the locker rooms ? Just because a person hasn't heard these words through the media makes it something that is not being conveyed to the players ? I have been reading that different Bruins players have been quoted as saying that their game is getting to the loose pucks first . Is this not a form of aggression and who do you think tells them to do this ?Posted by Chowdahkid-

Hey Chowdah. I recognize that avatar. You a fan of the team, or the logo?If it's the team, you must be a glutton for punishment

Sorry Duinne, actually stupid in my thinking only men are on this thread....seriously, my apologies. As far as coaching is concerned, Julien has been with three teams & hasnt had any success beyond the second round; wouldnt you question his abilities to coach an NHL team? Why has those teams tasted more success once he left, Devils & Montreal both have gone further once he was gone, there has to be a reason for this, management saw rosters that were not being utilized for their talents, his system limits skill & takes away from the flow of the game IMO; in laughing at watchng a game with me so I can may point out some areas in which proves my points, sounds as though you have played at some high levels, so I ask you if there is no flow to the game, players are limited in what they can accomplish, woudlnt that frustrate the heck out of you as a player on that team? This is what I am talking about this team will never win a cup, trap down keep games close, have moderate success on talent but never win it all!Posted by yep123

When Julien was fired by the Devils in 2007, they had the second-best record in the Eastern Conference. With Lamoriello behind the bench, they lost in the semifinals. Since then, they have lost in the quarterfinals for three straight years.

Julien coached one full season in Montreal (2003-04), in which the Canadiens lost in the semifinals. Since then, they have lost in the quarterfinals, didn't make the playoffs, lost in the semifinals, lost in the quarterfinals. Last year they made it to the conference finals on the back of Halak.

I fail to see how this means those teams have "gone further once he was gone." Perhaps you can explain.

CJ is a good coach the numbers prove it, but is he capable of being a stanley cup winning coach, I'm not so sure. His system seems to stifle creativity and he seems way to inflexible.A prime example in my opinion would be Bergeron dosent seem to be clicking with Lucic and Horton like he was with Caron why not put them back together and try someone else on the first line , even if its just for a period or two.